The Martyred Generals

Should we Really Mourn?

It was never clear to me why General Christopher Donahue arranged to have himself pictured, complete with green-tinted night vision style special effects, on the tarmac as the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan. (According to a friend with intimate knowledge of what happened on the plane, the picture was “less than candid”) The performance was apparently intended to evoke the precedent of the Soviet general, Boris Gromov, who similarly cast himself as the last Soviet soldier to leave Afghanistan. Gromov did it on foot, walking across a bridge into Uzbekistan in February, 1989. As a civilian, he subsequently enjoyed a successful political career in Moscow, though it’s not yet clear if Donahue’s referencing of Gromov extends that far.